Morning Wrap

Fred Thompson: The WaPo offers a behind-the-scenes look at Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign. Headquartered in the former senator’s McLean, Va. home, Thompson’s team included G.O.P. all-stars, such as strategist Mary Matalin, John Ashcroft’s former speechwriter, Ed McFadden, and Bob Dole’s former spokesman, Nelson Warfield. Former Richard Nixon operative, Ken Rietz, organized the group. He is still at the helm of the Thompson campaign, but much of the rest of the team has dwindled. And critics say many of the campaign’s struggles can be attributed to Rietz bringing on too many friends from outdated political eras.

Benazir Bhutto: During a phone interview with CNN this morning, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto called for the resignation of Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf. The NYT reports that about 900 riot police surrounded Bhutto’s house to block her and her supporters from embarking on a planned 160-mile march from Lahore, Pakistan to the capital city, Islamabad. Party workers who attempted to cross police lines to reach Bhutto were arrested.

The Minneapolis Problem: The NYT reports that new Attorney General Michael Mukasey faces a particularly tough challenge in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The U.S. attorney there, 34-year-old lawyer Rachel Paulose, is “routinely described by colleagues in Minneapolis and Washington as representative of much that went wrong” at the Justice Department under Alberto Gonzales. Palouse was relatively inexperienced when she took the job, but she is considered extremely loyal to the Bush administration. She is currently the subject of an investigation by the Office of Special Counsel. In her May congressional testimony, Monica Goodling said Palouse was nominated in part because she was Republcian.

Reduced Sentences?: Today the U.S. Sentencing Commission is set to consider reducing sentences for inmates incarcerated in federal prisons for crack cocaine offenses. The independent panel constructed more lenient guidelines this spring for future crack cocaine offenders, and today is scheduled to decide whether to make the guidelines retroactive, reports the WaPo. If the guidelines are adopted, the sentences of 19,500 inmates will be cut by an average of 27 months. 1,400 of those who would be eligible for reduced sentences were convicted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. Civil rights organizations have long considered this issue racially-charge. They point out that federal penalties for crack cocaine offenders, who are typically African American, are tougher than for powder cocaine users, who are usually white. The WaPo says nearly 86 percent of the prisoners the guidelines would apply to are black.

Comments

[Marisa McQuilken]

Thanks for the catch. Correction in text above.

[buck]

Paulose is not the AG in Minnesota. She's the USA in Minneapolis. Please keep the story straight--this is supposed to be a legal blog!